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Radiation Detecting Android Phone Coming To Japan

Posted by Unknown on from the also-detects-invasion-by-mothra dept.

itwbennett writes "Softbank, Japan's third largest carrier, has teamed up with Sharp to create a radiation detector chip for the latest model in the company's popular, bare-bones Pantone line of smartphones. The chip 'can detect gamma radiation in the air at doses of between 0.05 and 9.99 microsieverts per hour,' according to an IDG News Service report. 'The phone then uses its GPS to place readings on a map. Due to go on sale in July, it runs Android 4.0 and features standard functionality for Japanese handsets, including mobile TV, touch payments and infrared transmission.'"

11 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. That's seems awfully sensitive to me by crazyjj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seems to me that's it's too low on both the top end and bottom end. You couldn't use it for detecting real hotspots on the top end and it's so sensitive on the bottom end that even exposure to direct sunlight will have everyone panicking. I think it's more likely to cause irrational behavior than help.

    --
    What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
    1. Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "there's no legitimate reason for anyone... to be carrying a radiation detector."

      unless you wanted to receive data from numerous locations in real time detailing the exact dispersal of radiation at ground level.... which i would think to be a very useful information.

      just as japan is swarmed by people carrying camcorders providing the most recorded footage of a tsunami ever known...

      invaluable data i would think.

    2. Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This phone is a ruse, to captalise by make people think they can manage this. In other words, it is a comfort item, not an actual safety measure.

      It also works as a propaganda item. "Testing radiation levels is the new normal, it's even on my phone, see!" The management of public perception is far easier than the management of spent fuel in reactor 4.

      The real, long-term prospect for anyone living in the Fukushima shadow is too horrible to contemplate.

      The new, official story - just made public - is that the initial release from TEPCO was 2.5 X higher than was admitted at the time. If this is what they are recalcitrantly admitting to, after incontrovertible evidence, how bad is it really? After all, the utility and the government both demonstrate they cannot be trusted to prefer health and safety over saving-face.

      So? Buy a phone and whistle past the graveyard...

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    3. Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Samt thing happened on 9/11 where the government claimed the air was safe to breathe, but then people started getting sick, so the government had to admit it lied. What use is having regulation if the politicians or bureaucrats simply ignore them (or lie)? Regulations don't work because the regulators aren't doing the job

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    4. Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd love to be scared by the radiation release at this point, as I enjoy a good fright, but how many people have died to date of exposure to the radiation? How many people will die as a result of the exposure? Will it really top the loss of life on the day of the earthquake? Is it worse to be exposed to that much radiation, or the amount of toxic agriculture pestiside and industrial era polution crap I live with every day in the suburbs?

      We are surrounded by risks of many types both within our bodies genome, the enviornment, and behaviors we have. I just can't wrap my head around hyper focusing on one and ignoring all the others.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    5. Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's no legitimate reason for anyone (who's not a researcher or a nuclear plant employee) to be carrying a radiation detector around with them all the time.

      I call BS. You might as well say "There's no legitimate reason for anyone (who's not a researcher or a nuclear plant employee) to be carrying a detector for NOx levels" or something like that.

      You live in an environment, and you're interested (for whatever reason) to measure 1 aspect of that environment's condition. That's all there is to it, and that's all the 'legitimacy' you need.

      For that purpose the range seems appropriate... I've got a radiation chart here, some figures from lower end of the scale:
      0.1 microSv - airport security scan (backscatter X-ray)
      0.25 microSv - airport security scan maximum permitted
      1.0 microSv - using a CRT monitor for a year
      5.0 microSv - dental X-ray
      7.5 microSv - per day in Tokyo, 250 km SW of Fukushima plant
      40 microSv - Flight from New York to LA
      100 microSv - chest X-ray

      So that sensitivity range seems reasonable - note the "per hour" in there. Not radiation levels that would put you in hospital with 3 weeks to live, but the kind of levels above background that might be a concern longterm. Having a sensor that allows you to measure that throughout the day, wherever you go, sounds more useful than spot checks or relying (solely?) on government-provided figures.

      Whether you should bother, what levels are safe, etc, let people figure that out for themselves. I don't see any harm in adding some datapoints...

    6. Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me by toQDuj · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or, you know, none. I counter your "Experts" with the UN "Experts": http://www.nature.com/news/fukushima-s-doses-tallied-1.10686

      Outside of those directly affected (i.e. evacuated from the area or traumatized by the tsunami), worrying about radiation will carry a higher cancer risk due to stress than the actual radiation.

      --
      Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
  2. it's a trick by swschrad · · Score: 4, Funny

    if they get up to a half mS, you probably get pop-up ads for the closest pharmacy with iodine pills.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  3. Re:Geiger by tom17 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe because it (probably) doesn't use a Geiger counter?

    A Geiger counter is just one of many radiation detectors (or particle detectors).

  4. Re:Geiger by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why don't they call a 'radiation detector' by its name? It's a Geiger Counter. Way to make a name for something fall out of common usage...

    Unless it contains a Geiger–Müller tube, it isn't much of a Geiger counter. Since this phone apparently contains a 'chip'(quite possibly just a CCD of some sort packaged so that most of the pxel hits can be assumed to be from high energy radiation, possibly something cleverer/more specialized), and since cramming a gas tube and high-voltage driver circuits into a cellphone is a pain, I'm guessing that there is nothing 'Geiger' about this counter...

  5. Re:Geiger by Ruie · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why don't they call a 'radiation detector' by its name? It's a Geiger Counter. Way to make a name for something fall out of common usage...

    There is not much description in the article, but I don't think it is a Geiger tube, as that requires high voltages and is fairly bulky. This is probably some sort of silicon detector.